Adjustable Waist Pants

An adjustable waistband works by letting you loosen or tighten the fit yourself rather than locking you into one measurement. To adjust the waist size, simply change the hole where the internal button fastens on the side, ensuring a snug, tailored fit that adapts as your body changes. Because the waist moves with you, one pair covers a growing bump and a changing postpartum body without the fit ever going slack or tight.

Most people start wearing maternity pants in the second trimester, when a regular waistband begins to sit on the bump rather than below it. Adjustable waist pants can be worn earlier than that, because you can let them out gradually instead of switching over on one particular day. That is also why they stay in the wardrobe longest.

Order your usual pre-pregnancy size in adjustable waist pants. The waistband is designed to expand across the pregnancy, so sizing up leaves the leg and hip too loose from the start. If you are between sizes, take the smaller of the two and use the tie or foldover to open the waist as you need it.

You can wear adjustable waist pants to work, and several styles here are cut for exactly that. The tailored and pinstripe trousers read as workwear rather than maternity wear, with the adjustable construction hidden inside the waistband. They hold a shape through a full day at a desk and pair with a blazer without looking like a compromise.

Adjustable waist pants are not only for pregnancy, which is the point of buying them. The same waistband that opens for a bump also adapts through postpartum recovery, endometriosis, bloating, and ordinary week-to-week changes. Plenty of these styles are bought by people who are not pregnant at all, simply because the fit is forgiving.